The rewards associated with the managing ladder depend on why you made the choice to follow that path. If you perceive a job in management as a status symbol, an opportunity for greater security, the additional perks and benefits (there are some), and a play-it-safe attitude by pleasing the next levels of management, then life can be comfortable. Many managers have played this game very successfully. They have managed to milk the cow dry and their managers were blind to what was going on until the organization began missing its performance targets. This condition exists until a new upper-level manager arrives on the scene and begins looking at past performance through a set of realistic eyes. If managing is perceived as a responsibility for contributing to the performance of the enterprise, then managing becomes an intensive process.
Becoming a manager does have its rewards for the person who has a passion for managing. Managing even at the entry level provides opportunities if the manager brings to the position the appropriate mix of the five components of managing competence. Managing is a people business that potentially requires dealing with ambiguities. If you fit the criteria for managing, the satisfaction comes from making a difference by accepting the intellectual challenge of leading a group of people in pursuit of some desirable objective.
Larry Bossidy suggests that managers have different kinds of intellectual challenges. Conceiving the broad picture is generally intuitive and, I might add, comes from mulling around many ideas, sometimes for long periods of time. One doesn’t define the broad picture by looking out the window and exclaiming, "Eureka!" According to Bossidy, shaping the broad picture into a set of analytical executable actions is a "huge intellectual, emotional, and creative challenge." This is your challenge as an entry-level manager.
The pitfalls of climbing the management ladder depend principally on the organization’s work environment. Here are some of the issues to consider:
- No more forty-hour weeks—you dedicate whatever time is required.
- You are now accountable for performance of your staff.
- Demands will be made on your time for pursuing organizational efforts that will add responsibilities beyond those of your group.
- The business of the organization takes precedence over discipline considerations.
- You are the final decision maker for your department unless your manager interferes.
- You wear the seven management hats for your department, a new hat for the organization, and are expected to make a personal contribution to the work effort—you not only delegate but also come forth with the innovative approaches for moving your department forward.
- People conflicts will arise within your department, the organization, customers and suppliers, and governmental agencies—solve them now rather than evade them.
This is not only the real world of managing but also the real world of the professional who excels in his or her discipline and focuses effort on achieving results. If you’ve lived with these pitfalls and managed them as a professional then you should have few problems living with them as a manager. They were pitfalls that came with the job as a professional and they also come with the job of managing. These pitfalls go with the new territory but at the same time you can’t become obsessed with them and allow them to dominate your life for long periods of time. Learn how to control them.